CEOs in Queensland’s residential care sector are being paid up to $679,000 annually while providers are investing in gold and cryptocurrency, according to a new report. 

The Financial Review of Non-Family-Based Residential Care was prepared for the Commission of Inquiry into the Child Safety System by KPMG. 

It comes as the commission begins two weeks of hearings into the costs of residential care next week.

Minister for Child Safety, Amanda Camm, said the findings were “nothing short of disgraceful”.

“It should cause Queenslanders real concern when it comes to our state’s most vulnerable children and the way they have been cared for over the past decade,” she said.

Residential care costs have increased from $200 million per annum to $1.2 billion per annum in the past decade. 

“The creation of that market has led to CEOs being paid over $600,000, children and their vulnerabilities being traded for cryptocurrency and gold,” Ms Camm said.

“We have seen management fees and loans in the millions of dollars be distributed to shareholders who have profited from our state’s most vulnerable children, [and] have profited from a broken child safety system.”

Children in residential care in Queensland

About 12,500 children live in out-of-home care in Queensland, with roughly 2,200 of those young people in residential care.

The report, which did not name the providers, found some CEOs were being paid between $400,000 to $679,000 and, in one instance, the salary represented 21 per cent of the provider’s revenue. 

In one case, a provider invested $242,000 in gold and $100,000 in cryptocurrency, had two Mercedes-Benz vehicles and paid the owners $140,000 in dividends. 

According to the review, the profits being reported by providers were an unreliable indicator of financial performance, making it difficult to analyse service delivery.

Fifteen providers received half of funding

In the 2024/25 financial year, 163 providers received an average of $7.2 million in funding for delivering residential care services in Queensland. 

The review found the top 15 providers had received half of the total residential care funding. 

Of the 163 providers, 125 were unlicensed, a group that has been increasing in size in the past four years and now accounts for 77 per cent of all providers. 

Licensed services are certified under the Human Services Quality Framework (HSQF), while unlicensed providers, which are often used for immediate or specialised placement, are regulated and monitored by the department but not subject to certification assessment processes. 

A man in a suit sitting in a high-back leather chair at a timber bar with microphones on it.

Commissioner Paul Anastassiou KC will release a report and recommendations next month.  (AAP: Darren England)

Ms Camm said the government was in the process of transitioning from children in high-cost for-profit individual placement supports to longer-term contracts. 

However, she said there were risks associated with ending contracts.

“Each individual contract represents a child in care,” she said.

“We have had to work very closely with those that are licensed… to grow the placement numbers there, alongside growing our fostering kinship care placements so that we can transition these children into safe, stable placements where their best interests are put first.

“Not the profiting interests of shareholders.”

Ms Camm said the government had already ended the contract of one provider, and if corrupt or criminal behaviour is uncovered, appropriate referrals would be made.

The commissioner is due to release his final report and recommendations on May 22.Â